Ellison buys an airline

Oracle boss Larry Ellison has bought a small Hawaiian airline about a year after he bought most of the land on the small Hawaiian island of Lana'i, off the coast of Maui.

Island Air is a Honolulu-based carrier with a handful of island-hopping planes and about 245 employees. He said it will not make any staff changes as part of the sale and will continue normal operations. Les Murashige, Island Air president said that Ellison has the vision and resources to literally take Island Air to new heights.

It is not clear how much Ellison paid for the airline, but it is not likely to have emptied his $36 billion bank account. Ellison bought 98 percent of Lana'i last year, he said he intended to turn the island into a "laboratory" for green living.